iN£WS
The rich
were still rich...
I n the never-ending a t t empt t o b a t t e r the poor and
squeeze every l a s t p r o f i t
from the poor, Government
has again a t t a c k e d the poor
here i n Vancouver. The
following a r t i c l e i s rep r i n t e d from the 'End Legi s l a t e d Poverty' n e w s l e t t e r
Jan. 19*. '88' .
Vancouver C i t y Council i s
p l a n n i n g t o close down
thousands of i l l e g a l s u i t e s
over the next 10 years.
More than 20,000 homes are
at r i s k . I n the past C i t y
Council has l e t people stay
i n these s u i t e s i f the landl o r d needed the money or i f
the tenant needed a place
to l i v e . These were c a l l e d
h a r d s h i p cases.
Last month the c i t y voted
t o end the h a r d s h i p p o l i c y .
This means t h a t up t o l.ooo
people might lose t h e i r
homes soon. David Lane
works at the Tenants Rights
A c t i o n Centre, he sais
"Closing down these s u i t e s
w i l l wipe out every s i n g l e
vacancy i n the lower mainl a n d . Rents w i l l go up,
more people w i l l be
f o r c e d t o use food banks",
I l l e g a l s u i t e s are u s u a l l y
i n basements. They are i l l egal because they are i n
areas of the c i t y where the
law sais t h a t only s i n g l e
f a m i l y homes can be. This
law i s c a l l e d a zoning law.

I read i n an i n t e r v i e w once
where one person s a i d t h a t
Crass had changed some
people, but even t h a t i s
useless, & t h a t punk i s
only t o have f u n . What
shit*. I f you're i n a -band
or doing a zine or anything
you must be having some f u n
or you wouldn't be doing i t .
(Besides the slave-labour

W e l l , I hadn't heard anyt h i n g from C h r i s t on Parade since t h e i r g r e a t Lp
'Sounds of Nature', a grea
t t h r a s h sound backed by
intelligent lyrics.
So
\n I heard they had j u s t
=fj released a new Lp, I t h o u - |
s ght I ' d f i n d out what they
! were doing...
Gored.
Band; Noah, g u i t a r & vox.
Todd, drums; Dug, g u i t a r
& vox, Ron, bass.
Endless S t r u g g l e ; What hav
has the band been up t o
since your l a s t release?
C h r i s t on Parade; We r e c orded the new Lp l a s t summer and since then we've
been p l a y i n g l o c a l l y & a l
so went down t o San Diego.
Also, Malcom decided t o ret i r e from the band t o
have more time f o r other
t h i n g s , i t was almost the
end of the band but we got
a new b a s s i s t (Ron) and
wrote a whole bunch of new
songs & s t a r t e d p l a y i n g again.
Although l o s i n g Malcom sucks, we're as t i g h t
as ever now & Ron i s a r e a l l y good b a s s i s t .
ES:
So the new Lp has j u s t
come out, how i s i t d i f f e r ent from previous releases
and are you pleased w i t h
the outcome? COP; The new
record i s f i n a l l y out ( t h e
review was t o o e a r l y ) & i t
seems t o be doing p r e t t y
w e l l . I t was a l o t of f u n
t o do, although we d i d i t
a long time ago now.
We
a l l agree i t could have been b e t t e r but such i s the
case w i t h a l l records.
10

ES: Do you t h i n k s i n g i n g
about s o c i a l problems i s
enough or do you want t o
do more than what the
band can do? COP; Being
i n a band i s fun'.
I f we
weren't having a good time
we wouldn't do i t . Not t o
say i t ' s a l l f u n , but l i k e
anything you have t o work
at i t t o make i t w o r t h w h i l e . But we d e f i n i t l y
t r y t o express ourselves
our views through our musi c ( t h a t ' s why we're not a
pop band). I f people want
t o l i s t e n , we're s e r i o u s
about what we say, we w i l l
joke around but would never s i n g a r a c i s t or s e x i s t
song & say i t ' s a joke.
Bands t h a t do t h i s are
s h i t ; I f they were the
t a r g e t of racism or sexism
they wouldn't t h i n k i t so
funny. ES; Where have you
toured & w i l l you ever make
i t t o Western Canada?
COP; 2 summers ago COP t o u r ed most of the US and some
of Eastern Canada. This next
summer we're hoping on
going t o NY & a f t e r t h a t
( i f e v e r y t h i n g works o u t ) ,
to Europe. Around Christmas
we w i l l be i n Vancouver t o
p l a y shows (we're t r y i n g t o
set i t u p ) , so hope t o see
you there'.' (Obviously i t
d i d n ' t work out-Gored).
ES; To me i t seems l i k e COP
has a l o t o f b e l e i f s (veg?.
animal r i g h t s . a n t i - a u t h o r i t y ) . does the band as a^
w h o l E b e l i e v e i n the l y r i c s ?
COP; Yes, the band b e l i e v e s
i n what we w r i t e about. Usu a l l y the person who w r i t e s
the l y r i c s sings them t o o .
I f someone doesn't l i k e a
songs l y r i c s or music they
w i l l l e t i t be known & we
won't use i t . I t ' s a group
e f f o r t & we a l l work t o g e t h er.
ES; Are any o f you i n t o
the metal scene, & what are

REVIVAL
The revival of the Anarchist Black Cross
as such however took place as a result of
Stuart Christie's imprisonment in Spain.
With the publicity attracted,'he received
solidarity from a great many countries,
and shared this with fellow-Anarchist
prisoners. As a result of which we found
that aid to Saprtish prisoners was possible.
"When Christie returned, he wanted to
aid prisoners in Spain and began to work
with Albert Meltzer who for some years
past had taken over the Mutual Aid
from M.P.J. Acharya in India working for
Asian prisoners.
. The Black Cross first worked for the
release of Migual Garcia who was near to
the end of his sentence (which did not
.mean automatic liberty), and when he
came out, he joined them in London to
organise the International Black Cross.

AIMS
The aims of the Black Cross as reconstituted
was to provide a 'springboard'effect — get
people to work for the release of, and where
possible the assistance of, political prisoners
and Anarchists in particular — and in turn
get inspiration from them in carrying on
the struggle.
Help came immediately from many
comrades at home and abroad. In particular
during the last days of Franco numerous
food parcels went to Spain — these meant
a great deal as prisoners were being refused
the right to work if they engaged in demonstrations against the regime, which were
breaking out throughout the prisons of
Spain as the Franco regime was cracking.
It meant that they had to get help from
their none too affluent families, or starve.
The encouragement that the parcels brought
or the financial assistance received, meant
they had more heart to struggle.

During the Russian civil war, when the
Red Cross was active in organising relief,
it was thought better to change the name
to avoid confusion, and so it became the
Anarchist Black Cross.
: After the Bolsheviks seized power, the
organisation moved to Berlin — still with
its main aid Chicago-based - and continued
to help Russian prisoners (now of the Soviet
Union) with the added task of helping the
ORIGINS
victims of Italian Fascism, and prisoners of
The Anarchist Red Cross started in Tsarist
the post-war German reaction. Finally
Russia. It was active on two fronts — the
organising of aid for political prisoners and when Germany succumbed to fascism, and
the depression hit America, the decline in
deportees, and organising self-defence
the amount of financial aid and the huge
against political raids by Cossacks. In this
latter capacity it helped start Jewish work- wave of people need ing that support,
broke the back of the organisation. Neverer's self-defence against pogroms. It was
sustained economically by Russian Anarch- theless, Chicago remained a source of
ists in America, particularly in Chicago. '
strength for years up to recent times.

GROUPS

It was not our intention to set up Black
Cross groups in other countries. Our idea
was that we could channel the information
to groups about prisoners, concentrated
on Spain — at a time when the Anarchist
prisoners were still a sizeable proportion;^-:
and they could act directly. We hated the
idea of becoming a bureaucratic charity in
which money, goes to upkeep. We resisted
that. Other Black Cross groups sprang up
in other countries, particularly in Germany
ind Italy —since then almost everywhere,
some with slightly different ideas to our
own, others the same.
They have had their own problems —
major ones too - for the railwayman,
Pinelli, the secretary of the Black Cross in
Milan, was murdered by the Italian police
in being flung from a window (which still
amuses the bourgeoisie as shown in 'Death
ofay Anarchist' - deaths of Statists never
do). Georg von Rauch, secretary o; 'he

Slack Cross in Berlin, was murdered by the
armed police. But who would believe these
people — anarchists — against the word pf
officers with forty years experience in the
force, asked the Berlin police chief,
which statement identified them pretty
clearly as Nazis.
The greatest satisfaction we had was the
release of Goliardo Fiaschi. Released from
20 years imprisonment under Franco he
was re-arrested and charged on deportation
to his native Italy under an old Fascist
conviction. Our intervention apparently
brought his release (it happened barely a
week after we approached the authorities).
There were a number of other cases
where we managed to obtain the release
of people either already sentenced or on
trial. International protest probably saved
the lives of the Murrays, but so far alas
they are still in an Irish jail. We were
delighted to find that our protest swelled
the many protests of others which, with
his own heroic stand, secured the release
of Black American activist Martin Sostre.
Prison governors or examining judges
have sometimes been overwhelmed by
the response stirred up. When Brenda
Christie was arrested on a trumped up
charge in Western Germany, the judge
protested that he had never been so
deluged with complaints from all over the
world. The French examining judge in
another case — involving Jean Weir and
Octavio Alberola — claimed a nervous
breakdown as a result of the same 'mistreatment'.

NOW
One offshoot of the Anarchist Black
Cross in this country was the transformation of the ABC into Black Flag (in
1971). Like the Black Cross, it was
intended to promote mutual aid and
activism among what seemed to be the
anarchist movement at the time. Now
Black Flag and the Anarchist Black Cross
aren't.precisely identical and we haven't
yet got down to working out our
'constitution'.
. While Black Flag is produced in
London, contributions come from all
over Britain and the world. The ABC
keeps good contact with Anarchists
around the world and we exchange
Black Flag with many publications
from the anarchist press today. Black

Flag and publications we have also
produced are sent free on request to
prisoners anywhere in the world where
they can be received.
Through the pages of Black Flag and
by protests, pickets and demonstrations
we go on struggling for the freedom of
class war prisoners and encourage
Anarchists to organise.
More recently we have tried to
organise a more efficient Black Cross network in Britain and have had some success
here. On an international level, Anarchist Black Cross groups have recently
sprungup in Canada, Finland, Sweden,
Denmark and Australia and we hear
there is talk of setting up similar groups
in other countries. We obviously applaud
such initiatives and urge groups in all
countries to do the same.
At present our activities are centred
around the case of Katsuhisa Omori —
sentenced to death in Japan for a bombing he never committed. Other cases we.
have recently been involved include
Greek hunger striker Victor Armanious,
the Vancouver 5 (Canada), CNT-AIT
and libertarian prisoners in Spain and
others.

their lives.
They do not want t o l i v e i n
a s o c i e t y which denies the
r i g h t of a s m a l l community
of cree people t o s u r v i v e on
t h e i r own l a n d .
The committee a g a i n s t racism
urge people t o b o y c o t t the
Glenbow museum p r e s e n t a t i o n
of the ' s p i r i t sings' because i t i s a t r a v e s t y t o
support a show a t t e m p t i n g t o
educate the world by exhibi t i n g I n d i a n a r t i f a c t s from
when a l i v i n g I n d i a n c u l t u r e
i s being destroyed
now.
F u r t h e r , the e x h i b i t s major
sponsor i s S h e l l o i l , one of
the major operators on Lubi c o n land Glenbows board of
Governors i s comprised of a
m a j o r i t y of persons from
major o i l companies, A l b e r t a
p o l i t i c i a n s & a law f i r m
r e p r e s e n t i n g defendants i n
the Lubicon case'.
No n a t i o n - s t a t e s are boycotiri n g the '88 Olympics & Canada would p r e f e r t h a t people
not understand why t h i s boyc o t t i s c a l l e d by a small
group of Canadas f i r s t
n a t i o n s . The C.A.R. take
t h i s oppurtunity to inform
the w o r l d t h a t Canadas t r e a t ment, of n a t i v e people c o n t r ibutes to t h e i r poverty,

despair, & h i g h m o r t a l i t y
r a t e s . The genocidal consequences of i n s i t u t i o n a l i s e d
racism must be recognised &
fought by a l l people from
any corner of the w o r l d .
The f a i l u r e t o f i g h t genocide, i n whatever form,
w i l l d i m i n i s h our i n d i v i d u a l
humanity."
Help the Lubicon lake
people s u r v i v e . They never
ceded t h e i r lands through
t r e a t y or i n any other way.
Their t r a d i t i o n a l t e r r i t o r
ies are being destroyed. I f
you are i n t e r e s t e d i n w o r k i n
i n g w i t h the a b o r i g i n a l
Rights group of the Committes Against Racism on the
Lubicon i s s u e , please cont
act them a t 282-684-5 .